Portsmouth High School came in at #12 in the rankings for schools across the state, according to the web site GoLocalProv. PHS moved up 5 spots in the rankings compared to last year's #17 spot.

One can debate the math behind the rankings: Per-pupil spending and student-teacher ratio both count for 15%, with various NECAP and SAT scores (where PHS saw improvement) and graduation rate each counting for 10%.

Nine out of the 11 schools ahead of us spend more per pupil, and we edged up slightly in student-teacher ratio, which clearly helped us this year. However, since we have a school committee chair, Cynthia Perrotti, who ran on a campaign promise to "optimize staff to student ratio," I wouldn't count on cracking the top 10 anytime soon.

While I remain deeply suspicious of any arbitrary methodology like this (cooked up by online journalists, who are a notoriously unreliable bunch <grin>) it's useful to look at the charts. The big takeway for me was not the ranking, but seeing that Portsmouth continues to perform well and does so efficiently (only one school in the top 10 has a lower cost-per-pupil.)

A big THANK YOU to the teachers and staff who make this possible, and congrats to the students and families who put in the hours every day that are hidden behind these numbers.